Agreement Reached For Ex-Secret Service Officer's Testimony

Fox Can Tell Grand Jury What He Saw Outside Oval Office

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Feb. 13) -- The Justice Department and independent counsel Ken Starr reached an agreement Friday night that clears the way for former Secret Service officer Lewis Fox to testify in front of a grand jury.

Under the agreement, Fox will be able to tell grand jurors what he knows about a possible meeting between President Bill Clinton and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. But Fox will not be asked questions pertaining to security matters or protection of the president.

The agreement covers only Fox. Starr and the Justice Department are still negotiating whether, and under what conditions, other current or former Secret Service personnel will testify.

The grand jury is looking into whether Clinton had a sexual relationship with Lewinsky and then encouraged her to lie about it. Clinton has denied both accusations.

Government sources say the Justice Department and the Treasury Department have been at odds over how to deal with requests from Starr for Secret Service personnel to testify before the grand jury. The Secret Service is a division of the Treasury Department.

Treasury officials maintain that Secret Service personnel should not be subject to subpoena because of privilege and national security concerns. The Justice officials are said to disagree.

Meanwhile, former Clinton aide Stephen Goodin has been subpoenaed by Starr to appear before the grand jury, sources tell CNN.

Goodin recently left his post as "aide to the president," the staffer who travels at the president's side to carry his personal papers and keep him abreast of scheduling and logistics matters. Goodin is soon to leave the White House for a job with USA Network.

As aide to the president, Goodin had unique access to Clinton, and as such is among those with the most information on who came in contact with the president at the White House and during travel.

Goodin's successor, Kris Engskov, was already called before the Starr grand jury. Sources tell CNN he was asked about the procedure for getting access to the president, both on the road and in the Oval Office.

One of the sources said Goodin's testimony had not been scheduled. Nor has an appearance by Nancy Hernreich, a longtime Clinton aide dating back to his Arkansas days who now serves as director of Oval Office operations and is known in the White House as the "gatekeeper" to the president.

The questioning of Lewinsky's mother, Marcia Lewis, before the grand jury included asking her to respond to tape-recorded conversations in which her daughter talks of an alleged sexual relationship with Clinton, CNN has learned.

The account came from two well-placed sources familiar with Starr's Washington grand jury proceedings.

One of the sources suggested the playing of the tapes was a major factor in Lewis' distress during her Wednesday testimony. At one point, she became so distraught that medical attention was summoned to the grand jury room.

Lewis is scheduled to return to the grand jury but did not testify Thursday. Lewis' attorney, Billy Martin, says she needed time to rest before testifying again.

It was not immediately clear how much of the tapes, or what portions, had been played in the grand jury room.

Starr's office wired onetime Lewinsky friend Linda Tripp, and sources say Tripp got the former White House intern to repeat accounts of how she had a sexual relationship with the president.

On those tapes, sources have said Lewinsky also claimed Clinton wanted her to deny any sexual relationship if questioned by the Paula Jones legal team. Jones has filed a lawsuit against Clinton, alleging he asked her for oral sex in 1991 in a Little Rock, Ark., hotel room.

Lewinsky and her attorney, Bill Ginsburg, returned to Washington Thursday night from Los Angeles for a still unscheduled appearance before Starr's grand jury.

Upon his return, Ginsburg said, "I wonder if they have tortured Ms. Lewis and Ms. Lewinsky quite enough yet. We'll see what happens."

CNN Correspondents Wolf Blitzer and John King contributed to this report.